1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a unit for weighing and dispensing portions of food such as potato products and in particular hot, fried, potato chips and french fries, and has for its object improvements therein.
2. Description of the prior art
In the specification of our U.S. Pat. No. 417,067 there is described a unit for weighing and dispensing portions of hot, fried, potato products comprising a casing in which are disclosed a receptacle for receiving a supply of the potato products and a dispensing chamber opening into said receptacle and into which hot potato products are fed by a vibrator unit coupled to a bottom wall of the receptacle, a heating element for maintaining chips hot whilst in the receptacle and in the dispensing chamber, the bottom wall of the receptacle being inclined upwardly in the direction of the dispensing chamber for allowing hot frying oil or fat to drain away in the opposite direction and into a collector, a weighing platform disposed inside the dispensing chamber and being hinged to a movable weighing support disposed outside the dispensing chamber, the weighing platform being retained in a position to receive the hot potato products and being released to permit it to hinge downwardly and dicharge the hot potato products therefrom in response to a predetermined amount of movement of the weighing support.
For convenience, potato product such as chips and french fries will be generically referred to as "chips" throughout the main body of this specification.
The Applicants have found with weighing and dispensing units constructed as described above that, in certain instances, in particular when the chip-receiving receptacle is filled to full capacity, there is a tendancy for chips to stick together within the mass of chips in the receptacle which may result in a number of stuck together chips being fed into the dispensing chamber and onto the weighing platform and a weight of chips being dispensed which is greater than the weight to which the weighing means has been set.